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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Peanut Butter and Banana Bread

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I wish all delicious things could be beautiful and appealing to the eye. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. This quick bread is a perfect example of what I mean. It is wonderfully moist and flavorful, but it is homely in the extreme, and when these ingredients are used, there's not much that can be done to improve its appearance. The combination of bananas, peanut butter and chocolate is irresistibly tasty, but as you can see, they turn the batter a blotchy, muddy tan that is less than pleasing to the eyes. I normally wouldn't bother with something like this, but the bread has such outstanding flavor, that I keep granting it clemency, and bake it over and over again. The recipe was developed by Beth Lipton and I found it at the library in her book, You Made That Dessert?. I really like the earthiness of this bread and I recommend it to you, but with a caution or two. First, do not attempt to make this with natural peanut butter. It is too thin to work as a butter replacement in this recipe. Second, avoid using regular chocolate chips if you can. They will blotch more than the miniatures as the loaf bakes and you'll end up with a hot mess on your hands. Last, and, most important of all, the bread should sit for a day before it is eaten. The flavor improves remarkably when it's given the opportunity to ripen. This is a moist loaf and it keeps well if properly wrapped. I think you will like this. Here's the recipe.

Directions:1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mist a 5 x 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2) Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl until combined.
3) Place peanut butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until well-blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in mashed banana and eggs; mix well.
4) Using a wooden spoon or flexible spatula, stir flour mixture into the peanut butter–banana mixture, mixing until just combined, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips, if using. Scrape batter into the pan and smooth top.
5) Bake 45 minutes. Cover pan loosely with foil and bake 10 to 15 minutes longer, or until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool bread on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. It helps to run a paring knife around edges of pan to loosen bread before turning it out. Invert bread onto a wire rack. Carefully turn bread right-side up. When cool, slice and serve. Yield: One 9-inch loaf. Serves 8.

I don't think you should worry at all about what color the ingredients turn the bread because this looks absolutely delicious to me!! Yum! I will definitely bookmark this as my mum cooks a lovely banana bread, and she LOVES chocolate & peanut butter together! Perfect. Lastly I just wanted to say thank you so much for your kind comment on my blog, it brightened my day :)

This is a perfect loaf for a child or for a grown up child:) This bread really looks yummy... And I don't care personnaly for its appearance as long as it's good. And It looks good. Because I'm going back to work this morning, I think I'm gonna bake one to myself this week end, for my snacks:)

This has every element to go over well in this house! Tried the Scandanavian Shrimp Salad last night. Couldn't find the dill heads... but, it was mighty tasty with the regular dill fronds. I will keep my eye out for the heads! Thank you. Blessings ~tanna

Thanks for the helpful tip, Mary. This is exactly my formula (I say that, because I have it memorized)Sometimes I use a little less sugar, and sometime up to 1 cup, depending what I mix in it.The peanut butter is a fabulous addition with the chocolate chips.I'm so thrilled you shared this!Perfect, and beautiful banana bread:DDD

Your eyes may not think the bread is attractive...but I do! I have 3 ripe bananas in my fruit basket just crying out to be made into this bread! I am already imagining toasting it and spreading it with marshmallow fluff!

LOL on "homely". :) I have a glut of "favorite" banana bread recipes and some that I have even declared the final winner, but I keep trying new ones. Yours actually doesn't look homely at all - it looks irresistible. I'm going to try it, complete with your tweaks.

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